US Bill introduced to ban 'addictive' social media features

Social media sites would have to track how long people spend on their platform and lock them out after a certain period

A US Senator has introduced a Bill that would ban supposedly ‘addictive' features of social media platforms.

The Social Media Addiction Reduction Technology (SMART) Act, from Republican Senator Josh Hawley, would prohibit Twitter and Facebook-style infinite scrolling, stop the auto-playing of video and audio, and set time limits on individual account usage. Social media websites would be obliged to track how long each user spends engaging on the platform and required to cut-off access should that limit be reached.

They would also be obliged to display a pop-up warning to users every 30 minutes showing how long they have been logged-in to the platform, and companies would no longer be allowed to "manipulate people into consenting by making it difficult to decline consent".

The Bill is based on the belief that social media platforms exploit human psychology in their design to create platforms that are not just popular, but addictive.

"'Big tech' has embraced a business model of addiction. Too much of the ‘innovation' in this space is designed not to create better products, but to capture more attention by using psychological tricks that make it difficult to look away," said Hawley, introducing the Act.

The introduction of the SMART Act, which is unlikely to be passed, follows on from Facebook's latest run-in with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) last week.

The FTC fined Facebook a record $5 billion for egregiously violating the terms of a 2012 settlement for violating user privacy. Facebook will also be required to make organisational changes to ensure user privacy is better respected in future, and has consented to have its operations overseen by the FTC for the next 20 years.

This week, it was revealed that Australia's competition watchdog could force Facebook, Google and other online giants to disclose their algorithms to ensure that they are playing fair.

Josh Hawley is a Republican Senator representing the state of Missouri. He is currently the youngest member of the US upper house at the age of 39.